Guys I'm no cam expert by any means. Is the can I have that bad where just a cam change will a noticeable dif when I put the engines back together

HI all things being equal on a 540 ci eng, the differance between a 200 deg cam @ 50 and a 240 deg cam @ 50 with 100 thou more lift is close to 100 hp. not eched in stone but not far off either.

Bob is out until Monday.......still listening to suggestions

Any estimate how much HP I could be leaving on the table with the current cam

Need more cam for sure, also you have very low compression which does not help at all.

Adam, Bob is the go to guy for sure. Read past cam threads and people rave about him. 8 to 1 good blower compression(Future?)...9.5 to good for N/A engines tryin to make power. IMO with the right cam shaft and head/ intake work...625 HP at 5500.

Trying to weigh it out. Don't want to spend a ton of money but if the cam is def wrong then it should be changed

Bob just ground a cam for me and I haven't had it on the engine dyno yet but a buddy ran the set up on a desktop dyno. While the cam didn't make the most hp as another it was by far the most efficient, running 95%. The other cams were in the 88-90% range with only 20 more hp. The desktop dyno rated my 468 with 9.6 compression and some ported iron GM heads to be 511hp at 5500. The actual dyno pull will tell the tale and that will be after Christmas. My sentiments are Bobs cams are worth the extra money.

The heads are a bit weak on a 540.

Heads aren't an option this winter. So I'm stuck with them for now.